The ring is gold and weighs 7.5gms. It was made by the opus interrasile technique - a rare decorative form for an object found in a Roman context in Britain. By this technique a design was first picked out by drilling or punching holes through a gold sheet. These holes were then enlarged and improved by means of a small chisel. Some distortion of the leaf-stops on a similar ring makes it clear that the decoration and motto were executed first while the band was still flat and then the ends were hammered together to form the ring. The technique was time-consuming and the results, as a consequence, would have been expensive to buy. The use of a personal name as an integral part of the decoration suggests that they were made to order.
The motto reads AEMILIA ZESES (Aemilia may you live). The word zeses is a Greek version of the Latin vivas: in this case the craftsman has translated the expression of goodwill into Greek (zeseias) and back into Latin again, losing something in the translation. It is this wording which has led some authorities to suggest a Christian connotation, vivas being commonly used as a shortened form of the Christian expression vivas in deo (May You Live in God).
Rings were given as tokens of affection and as such played a part in the betrothal ceremony. It is possible that the Aemilia ring was a love token or betrothal gift. A parallel, also from Corbridge, reads in Greek "the love token of Polemios". Rings were popular as gifts between friends to the extent that the 2nd century Christian writer Tertullian felt obliged to condemn the excessive wearing of finger rings. Clement of Alexandria also considered the practice to be unnecessarily extravagant but suggested that Christians who were given rings should wear them low on the little finger, which may explain the size of the Aemilia ring.
The Discovery
The Aemilia Finger Ring was found at Corbridge in Northumberland in 1840 by a man pulling turnips in a field called variously Colchester, Corchester or Corbow. It was purchased by a Mr Thomas Blandford who presented it to the Duke of Northumberland at Alnwick Castle. In 1990 it was purchased by the Museum of Antiquities of the University and Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne with the generous assistance of the MGC/V & A Purchase Grant Fund, the National Art Collections Fund, and the Trustees of the Haverfield Bequest.
Historical Context
Although the openwork finger ring as a type was widespread in the Roman period, examples are extremely rare. Only three are known from Britain, of which two are from Corbridge. The second Corbridge example, 'the love token of Polemios", has been placed in the British Museum on loan from English Heritage, while the third ring, also in the British Museum, was found at Bedford in 1979. Parallels from Bulgaria, Holland and Belgium suggest that this ring may have been made as early as the late 2nd century AD, making it one of the earliest Christian artefacts ever to have been found in Britain.
